Rage and Restraint

We felt certain that we could justify anger, and even rage when it came to certain evils in the world. When we checked the Sacred Text, we found proof that anger can sometimes be appropriate; perhaps even righteous.

Jesus went into the Temple. He threw out all the people who were buying and selling there.

He turned over the tables that belonged to the men who were exchanging different kinds of money. And he upset the benches of those who were selling doves.

Jesus said to all the people there, “It is written in the Scriptures, ‘My Temple will be a house where people will pray.’ But you are changing God’s house into a ‘den of thieves.’  Matthew 21:12-17

You Pharisees and teachers of the Law of Moses are in for trouble! You’re nothing but show-offs. You travel over land and sea to win one follower. And when you have done so, you make that person twice as fit for hell as you are.  Matthew 23:15

So, after reviewing some of Jesus’ moments of fury, we concluded that there may, in fact, be times when anger or even rage might be entirely appropriate. Jesus had His triggers. He felt some kind of way about self-righteous hypocrites and conmen who use God’s house to make money.

His reaction was more than simply a display of righteous indignation. It was a display of self-restraint. The Son of God, with an army of angels at His disposal, simply flipped over a few tables and ran people out of the temple. He could have whistled for an asteroid to hit the coordinates where they stood. He could have summoned a flesh-eating bacterium to consume them or an earthquake that would bury them beneath tons of rubble. He could have destroyed those sanctimonious hypocrites in a million different ways, but he chose rather to use words, with an occasional show of force for emphasis.

Tetelestai Recovery Volume 2; Chapter Six – We Know a Guy

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